Looks like GCW bounced back quickly from losing Turner's TV shows - will be interesting to see if any promotion ever gets that TV slot in the future.

Ayala being NWA champion for such a long time could be kind of an early death of the NWA. Especially since it seems like Georgia, which is the premier NWA promotion at the moment seems to be ignoring it.

Piper-Rich as the New Megapowers? I can dig it. In a weird way, it's almost as charismatic.

Looks like GCW bounced back quickly from losing Turner's TV shows - will be interesting to see if any promotion ever gets that TV slot in the future.

Ayala being NWA champion for such a long time could be kind of an early death of the NWA. Especially since it seems like Georgia, which is the premier NWA promotion at the moment seems to be ignoring it.

Piper-Rich as the New Megapowers? I can dig it. In a weird way, it's almost as charismatic.

Thanks for following...

Without a powerful Jim Crockett Promotions, and a marquee champion like Dusty, Flair or Race, the NWA has become an afterthought in the US, but still holds influence in Japan (NJPW), Mexico (CMLL) and Puerto Rico (WWC)

Rich and Andre would be a fun team IMHO, like the Mega-Powers, they don't stay together too long but are a huge attraction while together

As of late 1987 the US wrestling scene revolves around "the big three"...you can guess the WWF is in that group...GCW seems a safe bet to survive despite no national TV for atleast the immediate future...and the third is...uhm...not River City Wrestling

Backstage heat-magnet and well travelled veteran "Easy" Ed Wiskowski wins the PNW Heavyweight title...Wiskowski then cuts a bizarre promo on the following weeks TV, ripping the fans, promoter Don Owen and threatening to "steal" the PNW title...

Could "Easy" Ed be the next regional star to head to the WWF?

...just three months after announcing her divorce from Giant Baba, Motoko Baba (now using her birth name Motoko Kawai) announces she is dating semi-retired wrester and AJPW road agent Great Kojika...honoring a prior agreement, the WWF allows Andre the Giant to appear for one night in Championship Wrestling from Florida...Andre would team with Barry Windham to wrestle Bob Roop and Charlie Cook to a no-contest...another of the territories fall as we enter the age of 'National Expansion' when Ron Fuller's Southeast Championship Wrestling folds in late April, citing massive debt as the cause...

"Bullet Bob" Armstrong appears on one of the last episodes of Southeast Championship Wrestling

...despite months of sagging ratings and mediocre shows, JCP rises to cult level...promoter Jim Crockett announces "big changes" are on the horizon in coming months...Ric Flair teams with Terry Funk to defeat Tatsumi Fujinami and Seiji Sakaguchi in a MOTY candidate (99) but Flair would suffer a hairline fracture in his left femur and be unable to wrestle until October...

Flair prepares for an epic showdown in Japan...but it'd be his last match until nearly Halloween

...in a battle of friendship vs nepotism, Nick Bockwinkel defeats Greg Gagne to retain the AWA World Heavyweight title...Tom Stone defeats Nacho Berrera to win the AWA Light Heavyweight title...Stone would drop the belt to "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal weeks later...longtime Memphis star Bill Dundee defeats Road Warrior Hawk for the AWA Southern Heavyweight title, ending Hawk's 5-month run with the belt...Hawk would then move on to feud with Hulk Hogan over the next few months...Hawk would also begin splitting time between Memphis and Georgia, reforming the Road Warriors in GCW with Animal...Jimmy Snuka retains the GCW title by defeating Adrian Adonis...Jack Brisco and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams defeat Ric Flair and Hercules Ayala to win the Crockett Cup tag team tournament...Stan Hansen returns to WCCW for a brief run, feuding with Terry Gordy during his stay...Butch Reed and Jim Duggan defeat Arn Anderson and Brett Sawyer to retain the Mid-South Tag Teams titles, but after the match Butch Reed throws down his belt and walks out on his partner...

The biggest news in wrestling in April comes from a sold-out Great Western Forum in Los Angeles and the World Wrestling Federation..."Rowdy" Roddy Piper shows his true colors, using a ref bump and a roll of dimes to take out "Wildfire" Tommy Rich and capture the WWF World Heavyweight title...Rich would remain a popular babyface with the WWF but fail to regain the title despite several rematches with Piper...when asked about his double cross of new "friend" Tommy Rich, Piper replied..."Just when they think they have the answers...I change the questions!"

One week after losing the WWF title to Roddy Piper, Tommy Rich rushes a taping of Piper's Pit leading to a massive brawl that destroys the set

Hercules Ayala again hangs on to the NWA World title, defeating his arch-rival Pedro Morales in Puerto Rico (again)

RCW is off this month as JD Greene seeks to obtain funding to keep the promotion running...and by "obtain funding" I mean "borrow dad's credit card"

...it's 11:30pm and WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC is broadcasting another episode of JCP's Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling...

The show opens with announcers Bob Caudle and David Crockett welcoming all the Mid-Atlantic fans to another exciting hour of wrestling action...but this time from a completely redesigned and much more modern set!

David Crockett: "That's right Bob and we have a special guest...MACW promoter, and my brother, Jim Crockett!"

Jim Crockett Jr., enters the studio to a mix of polite applause, rude heckles and a smattering of outright boos from fans unhappy about the companies recent decline...

Jim Crockett: "As you all surely know, the wrestling landscape is changing...and I am committed to bringing all of you the very best competition, not just from the NWA, but from the entire wrestling world. And to prove it, I would like to introduce two of the newest acquisitions here in MACW, a pair of well respected champions no less...

From off-screen enters the current AWA Light Heavyweight champion "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal! The crowd is only mildly amused...

Steve Regal: "Thank you Mister Crockett. I can't tell you how excited I am to be here wrestling in front of the best fans in America!"

Jim Crockett then goes on to air a pre-recorded promo from the second new acquisition to MACW...PNW Heavyweight champion "Easy" Ed Wiskowski!

Not as humble as Steve Regal, "Easy" Ed promises to dominate MACW starting with his first appearance next week

After a quick commercial, the scene returns to the studio were Regal is being interviewed by David Crockett and Bob Caudle in front of a restless studio audience. The mood of the crowd picks up when Regal is joined by one of the few genuine stars left in MACW, Wahoo McDaniel!

McDaniel barely begins to speak when suddenly a pair of men burst out from the back and attack both McDaniel and Regal. The two attack from behind and absolutely destroy the fan favorites before heading over to David Crockett and getting on the microphone...

The Varsity Club, Kevin Sullivan and Steve Williams, make a grand entrance to the Mid-Atlantic territory

Kevin Sullivan: "Jim Crockett, you want to tell everybody that Mid-Atlantic wrestling is the best in the country, then I hope you got your checkbook ready, 'cuz my partner "Dr. Death" and I ARE the best in America and the world baby...and we don't work cheap!"

...JCP has made it's move to become one of the top tier players in the US wrestling scene...will it lead to a resurgence for the once powerful Carolina territory...or too little too late?

Well respected Mexican rudo, Dr. Wagner, is indicted (under his real name) in Mexico City for taking part in a financial scam targeting working class retirees...

Disgraced Mexican star Dr. Wagner is considered "toxic" by promoters and may never wrestle again

...former WWF jobber Frankie Williams retires, Williams appeared at the very first RCW event...Rodney Anoa'i, the nephew of both the Wild Samoans Afa and Sika, begins training with Afa and plans to enter pro wrestling by the summer of 1984...

Rodney Anoa'i begins training with his uncle Afa

...a pair of top US stars bolt for Japan as Junkyard Dog leaves Mid-South for an exclusive deal with NJPW and manager Bobby Heenan signs with AJPW, depriving the faltering AWA of maybe their best mic worker...Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council is the next wrestling company to fall, holding their final show in mid-May before declaring bankruptcy...with JYD leaving Mid-South, the now vacant Mid-South Heavyweight title would eventually be won by veteran Ernie Ladd...Nick Bockwinkel defeats two up and coming future stars in May, defending the AWA title successfully against both Barry Windham and Curt Hennig...Billy Jack Haynes wins the now vacant PNW Heavyweight title

All-Star Wrestling passes WCCW's weekly TV show in the ratings war to become the most watched wrestling show in the US, although still less than 1 million viewers per week, well below the records set by the old Georgia Championship Wrestling program on WTBS...Andre the Giant and Tommy Rich work their way through Larry Zbyszko, Blackjack Mulligan and Paul Orndorff and Andre earns a title shot against Roddy Piper at Madison Square Gardens in a steel cage match...Piper wins the match by cleanly escaping the cage, cementing himself as the top star in the WWF

Andre the Giant brawls with Roddy Piper during the build-up to their highly anticipated title match

Along with Steve Regal and "Easy" Ed Wiskowski, JCP signs several new talents including: Kevin Sullivan, Abdullah the Butcher, Steve Williams, Mike Graham, Jerry Blackwell, Butch Reed and Dino Bravo...Koko B. Ware wins the NWA World Television title...Mike Rotundo and Steve Keirn win the NWA World Tag Team titles...despite being unable to wrestle due to his leg injury, Ric Flair makes several TV appearances, but the show still fails to break 80,000 viewers

Hercules Ayala again hangs on to the NWA World title, defeating his arch-rival Invader #2 in Puerto Rico and Riki Choshu in Japan (again)

RCW holds Cinco De Mayo '84 in front of a record crowd of 44 fans...Donnie Texas defeats JD Greene via DQ in the main event to retain the RCW title...the match ends when Comrade Nikita attacks Texas, leading to a bloody brawl that includes Texas, Greene, Nikita, Homeless Mick and the recently debuted Sid Steele

Women's wrestling legend Mildred Burke passes away from natural causes at the age of 68...another women's pioneer, Mae Young, leaves the business as well, retiring from active competition at the age of 61...other retirees in June include Ivan Putski, Don Fargo and Mexican Lucha Libre (and cultural) icon El Santo, who hadn't wrestled in 2 years but announced he was retiring from the public spotlight...

Not only was El Santo perhaps the most beloved Technico in Lucha history, he was an accomplished actor and an icon in Mexican pop-culture

...Kendall Windham, younger brother of Barry Windham, makes his pro wrestling debut at a series of indie shows in his native Texas...freelancer Ricky Steamboat joins WCCW and enters into a feud with Stan Hansen, leading to a series of fantastic matches between the two...

"The Dragon" tries to rest after getting thrown from the ring during a match against Stan "The Lariat" Hansen deep in the Heart of Texas

...Terry Funk joins Georgia Championship Wrestling for a 6-month run...International Wrestling from Montreal goes bankrupt...IW was the home base or starting promotion for wrestlers such as Rick Martel, Dino Bravo and the Rougeau brothers...Pedro Morales defeats Nick Bockwinkel in an AWA title match, but Bockwinkel loses by DQ and retains his title...Hulk Hogan loses matches against Jerry Brisco and Jim Duggan in Memphis, but the matches are well received by fans and rumors swirl that both the WWF and JCP are interested in Hogan...Ken Patera and Bobby Duncum defeat the Road Warriors to retain the GCW Tag Team titles at the Omni in Atlanta...on the same card, Jimmy Snuka retains the GCW Heavyweight title by defeating Bob Orton Jr...Kevin Von Erich defeats Buzz Sawyer to win the NWA American Heavyweight championship, the top title in WCCW

Andre the Giant and "Wildfire" Tommy Rich continue feuding with Roddy Piper, Blackjack Windham and Larry Zbyszko...Piper manages to retain the WWF title however, defeating Rich at the Philadelphia Spectrum...Tony Atlas turns heel but is still stuck in the mid-card

Dutch Mantell upsets Wahoo McDaniel to win the NWA United States title...two weeks later, Mantell drops the title to Kevin Von Erich...

Kevin Von Erich wins gold in Texas and the Carolinas in June '84

...despite their bold proclamations when joining JCP, the Varsity Club fails to win the NWA World Tag Team titles from Rotundo and Keirn...even with the recent influx of talent, ratings still stagnate for JCP who only manage to top 75,000 viewers once in June

Seiji Sakaguchi defeats Hercules Ayala on a NJPW tour show to win the NWA World title...Ayala held the prestigious belt for nearly 13 months

RCW holds a garage sale and car wash to raise money for their next show

The patriarch of the famous Hart wrestling family, Stu Hart, announces his divorce from longtime wife Helen...Hulk Hogan goes on a tear in Memphis, defeating top babyfaces Ricky Morton and Jim Duggan, then halfway through the month Hogan suddenly stops appearing on TV or at live events, fueling the rumors he's off to one of the major promotions...

After his disastrous AWA title run, can Hogan salvage his career, or will he be one of the all-time "busts" in wrestling history?

...Ernie Ladd defends the Mid-South Heavyweight title against Buzz Sawyer with the stipulation that Sawyer must win the belt or leave MSW forever...Sawyer loses and leaves the territory...

One of the true wild men in wrestling, Buzz Sawyer (seen here on the way to the ring to battle Ernie Ladd) leaves Mid-South...could he be following other territory stars to work for McMahon or Crockett?

...the AWA rises to cult size, but continues to trail well behind the WWF and even JCP & WCCW in national popularity...Paul Orndorff stuns the wrestling world when he upsets Nick Bockwinkel and wins the AWA World Heavyweight title, ending Bockwinkel's five month reign...

Unable to make it to the top spot in JCP, WWF or GCW, Orndorff finally wins a world title in the AWA

...the titles keep changing hands in July as Ken Patera defeats Jimmy Snuka at the Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. to win GCW's top belt, the NWA National Heavyweight title...

Patera and Snuka trade headlocks in the early going of their title match in July 1984...Patera would win when Snuka passes out while locked in the Backbreaker

After over a year away from the WWF the Grand Wizard returns, showing up at ringside of various TV matches to "scout for talent"...one half of the Wild Samoans, Afa, defeats Pedro Morales to win the WWF Intercontinental title thanks to interference from manager Lou Albano..."Wildfire" Tommy Rich begins tag teaming with Tito Santana...the WWF sells out the Pontiac Silverdome for the first ever nationally broadcasted PPV, King of the Ring...the WWF sets an indoor attendance record at the show of 93,173...

In front of 93,173 fans, Vince McMahon kicks off King of the Ring, ushering in the "PPV Era" in professional wrestling

...the co-main event sees Rich and Santana defeat Larry Zbyszko and Tully Blanchard while Roddy Piper defeats Andre the Giant in their much anticipated rematch to retain the WWF World title...Stampede Wrestling star Bret Hart debuts for the WWF in July

Rumors begin to swirl that JCP is falling into debt, unable to secure a national TV deal even after hiring a slew of big name talent...JCP releases nearly 2 dozen wrestlers in July, including top stars like Steve Williams, Jay Youngblood, Dutch Mantell, Big John Studd and rookie Rick Rude...JCP counters the WWF's first ever national PPV King of the Ring by holding the Great American Bash '84 on July 4th...the show bombs (47) with a terrible main event as NWA Word champion Seiji Sakaguchi successfully defends his title beating Butch Reed

Seiji Sakaguchi defeats Butch Reed in JCP and Al Tomko in Canada's ASW to retain the NWA World title

Following the trend of smaller regional territories struggling, Wrestling at the Chase, the weekly TV program for Central States Wrestling which had aired since 1959 is cancelled...Kerry Von Erich, considered by many to be one of the future superstars of professional wrestling, is caught in a Dallas airport with illegal steroids...Kerry was attempting to board a flight to Japan for an appearance with NJPW...while Von Erich will not face jail time, the arrest certainly tarnishes his image....

Kerry Von Erich (seen here battling former NWA World champion Ric Flair at a NJPW stadium show in Tokuyama Japan) gets arrested for steroids in Dallas

...ring veteran Killer Karl Kox retires...along with the Kerry Von Erich's arrest, WCCW suffers two more set backs in August as freelancer Stan Hansen moves on and veteran heel Ivan Koloff leaves the promotion to work exclusively in Memphis, depriving WCCW of two of it's top villains...longtime mid-carder Norvell Austin stuns a sold-out crowd at the Mid-South Arena in Memphis when he cleanly defeats Bill Dundee to capture the CWA's top belt, the AWA Southern Heavyweight title...Dundee would not receive a rematch and would not appear on Memphis TV or at live events after the loss...

...8-time British Heavyweight champion (in Big Time Wrestling) David Finlay makes his American debut wrestling at a live event for the AWA...Irish born Finley aka the Belfast Bruiser would also begin appearing for WCCW in September...

Unable to sign any of the top US stars (or create their own) the AWA hypes the debut of 26 year old "UK Sensation" David Finlay

...haven risen to cult size, CWA (Memphis) sign a slew of talent over the summer of 1984...along with Ivan Koloff, CWA signs Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Ron Garvin and Mike Rotundo to exclusive deals...two more wrestling promotions close in August as Canada's All-Star Wrestling and All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling both fold due to financial problems...Curt Hennig begins his second run with AWA Television title in August (he held the belt from July 83 to May 84) by defeating Gary Young for the strap...two weeks after winning the AWA Southern Heavyweight title, Norvell Austin loses the belt to "Wild" Bill Irwin...GCW holds the annual Cadillac Cup in Atlanta, Terry Gordy defeats Ken Patera in the finals of the one-night tournament...David Von Erich defeats Stan Hansen in a loser leaves Texas match in WCCW

Road Warrior Hawk debuts as a heel in the WWF as the mystery partner for Greg Valentine and Tony Atlas in a six-man tag match...Roddy Piper begins a gimmick where he refuses to defend the WWF World title against anyone he deems "unworthy", while he would defend the belt on untelevised house shows, Piper would go two months without defending the belt on TV or PPV...Ricky Morton also debuts in August, unsuccessfully challenging Afa for the WWF Intercontinental title...Tully Blanchard continues to move up the card, defeating longtime rival Tommy Rich on television and forming the Enforcers tag team with the Masked Superstar

"The Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant wins the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight title...Kevin Von Erich headlines the August Clash of Champions, defeating Dino Bravo to retain the NWA United States Heavyweight title...journeyman Al Madril wins the NWA Television title...TV rating continue to sag however, and JCP fails to secure a PPV deal

Ric Flair makes several appearances on JCP television in August...Flair is still recovering from a broken leg and is unable to wrestle however

Seiji Sakaguchi holds onto the NWA World title but does not defend the once prestigious belt in August

The big underrated thing is All Japan's Women closing. Wonder if any joshi stars like Kong, Toyota, or Hokuto are half as talented with the biggest (only?) women's Japanese fed closing down.

I'm not ready to class Memphis as a major promotion yet, but they are threatening to pull out of the pack (JCP, WCCW, Mid-South, AWA, GCW) as a challenger to the WWF who is the clear cut #1 at this point

as far as the joshi sadly as of late 87 there's just not much of a market for women's wrestling, in Japan or the US, so they are mostly sitting around unemployed

By the TEW map, Memphis should always be Cult because KY is in the Great Lakes region, and they owned (Nashville and west of it) TN and KY. That was one of my most fun games in 13 with this mod. Just starting with them at Cult was fun. Sadly, Joshi never works in TEW for some inexplicable reason. Never has.

By the TEW map, Memphis should always be Cult because KY is in the Great Lakes region, and they owned (Nashville and west of it) TN and KY. That was one of my most fun games in 13 with this mod. Just starting with them at Cult was fun. Sadly, Joshi never works in TEW for some inexplicable reason. Never has.